Lawsuit: NFLPA conspired with EA to cheat retired players

While EA Sports enjoys an exclusive deal with the NFL, the NFL Players' …

EA Sports makes what can only be described as mountains of money from the Madden NFL series. An update is released for every console platform on a yearly basis, and the title continually sells in the millions. Now retired NFL players are coming forward with lawsuits claiming EA isn't giving them the money they deserve for the use of their likeness and career information, and according to some damning internal communication, it appears as if the the NFL Players Association intentionally brokered a lower-than-market-value deal for retired players as a favor to the gaming giant.

How important is it for EA to have this information? "We don't believe there is a market for interactive football that is not based on real players and teams," lawyer Stuart M. Paynter told Ars about a lawsuit that claimed EA had an monopoly on electronic football. That lawsuit claimed that by signing deals with the NFL, the players union, Arena Football, and NCAA football, any competitor is effectively locked out by using any likeness of any player or team, current or past. This more recent lawsuit, Parrish, Adderley et al v. NFL Players, Inc., may show that some of those deals weren't competitive, and that both sides of the negotiation process were working towards an EA monopoly.

Jeff Nixon, who played safety for the Buffalo Bills from 1979 to 1984, has written an open letter (via GamePolitics) to John Madden detailing the corruption inside the NFLPA and Players Inc., the groups responsible for the negotiation for player compensation from EA Sports. NFLPA executive Clay Walker basically lays out the favoritism in this internal e-mail. "I was able to forge this deal with the [Hall of Fame] that provides them with 400K per year (which is significantly below market rate) in exchange for the HOF player rights. EA owes me a huge favor because of that threat was enough to persuade Take Two to back off its plans, leaving EA as the only professional football videogame manufacturer out there." How Walker expected to be repaid for these alleged activities in unknown.

An e-mail sent November 1, 2007, is equally plain in its language. Andrew Feffer, executive vice president and chief operating officer of the NFLPA wrote to EA Sports' representative Paul Cairns that "Clay and Joe's negotiation of these discounted terms was a significant contribution to EA as you more than likely would have paid in excess of $1 million for these rights without their involvement and assistance." In other words, you saved a cool million because you had people negotiating who weren't hoping to strike the best deal for the players.

The lawsuit claims the NFLPA worked for EA, not the players

Walker sent another e-mail to a Players Inc. attorney that shows they snubbed a larger offer from Take Two to make sure EA nabbed the rights at below-market prices, allowing them to lock down professional football. "The per player price for most of these guys was tens of thousands of dollars less than what they were guaranteed by Take Two Interactive so it’s a real coup that we were able to pull this off so cheaply," he wrote. "You have to remember that EA's total cost is only $200,000 per year. We know that Take Two offered six-figure deals to several former NFL players, so the total cost is millions below market prices."

Why would the organizations who supposedly support the players sell them out so easily? Jeff Nixon claims the answer is simple: "Discovery information also shows that the NFLPA and Players Inc. unilaterally made a decision to take $8 million dollars of the gross licensing revenue that should have been shared with retired players and reallocate it to the administration of the NFLPA and Players Inc." he wrote. "Even though the NFLPA and Players Inc. said they would subsequently conduct an independent third-party appraisal to assess the appropriateness of their decision, they have conceded that no such appraisal ever occurred."

The communications and bookkeeping that have been made available during the discovery phase of the lawsuit seem damning to the NFLPA. While the defendants will no doubt put up a spirited defense, EA can rest easy: the company has years to go before it has to renegotiate any aspect of this sweetheart deal. With many retired players receiving a pittance in benefits compared to those who played during the eras of fat TV contracts and free agency while suffering from permanent physical damage from the game, these allegations are even more disgusting. Everyone seems to be profiting from the blood and sweat of the players who make the game great—except the people who actually wore the numbers and uniforms depicted in the game.